Illustrations of Conifers. 83 



PRUMNOPITYS ELEGANS {Philippi). 

 Podocarpus Andinus (Pdppig). 



Linnma XXX. p. 731 (1859-60). 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, 1863, p. 6. 

 Veitch's Man. Gonif. ed. 2, p. 155 (1900) with figs. 



A tree attaining in South America a height of 40 to 50 feet, with 

 dark brown bark. In cultivation it is usually a shrub of dense 

 habit with a pyramidal outline. Branchlets alternate or sub-opposite. 

 Leaves persistent several years, spirally inserted but thrown into a 

 pectinate arrangement ; linear, h to f inch long, straight or falcate, 

 mucronate, dark green above, paler with two broad glaucous bands 

 of stomata below. 



Staminate flowers in terminal and axillary racemes, cylindric, ob- 

 tuse. Fruit resembling a wild damson in size, shape and colour ; 

 solitary and sessile, or pseudo-terminal on short slender branchlets 

 which have minute scales. Seed enclosed in a hard shell sur- 

 rounded by a fleshy pericarp. 



Prumnopitys elegans, which is allied to Podocarpus (but the pe- 

 duncle and fruit scale do not become fleshy as in that genus) is a 

 native of the Andes of Southern Chile where it is found at an alti- 

 tude of 4,500 to 6,000 feet. It was introduced into England in 

 1860 by Richard Pearce. 



The specimen illustrated was obtained from Eastnor Castle, 

 Ledbury. 



